Claremont serial killings: Bradley Edwards was ordered into a sex-offender’s treatment program more than five years before Claremont killings

Accused serial killer Bradley Edwards was ordered into a sex offender’s treatment program more than five years before he allegedly murdered three women he is accused of grabbing off the streets of Claremont in 1996 and 1997.

The progress towards the start of WA’s biggest ever murder trial jumped forward several steps yesterday when Justice Stephen Hall revealed his rulings on what evidence would and would not be allowed to be put before him.

The prosecution bid to include extreme, violent porn found on Mr Edwards’ computers in 2016 — including a violent “snuff rape” film called “Forced Entry” — was refused.

On the other hand, the defence had wanted to effectively split the trial in two to have heard separately allegations Mr Edwards broke into a Huntingdale house in 1988 and attacked a teenager sleeping inside.

That was also ruled out.

“There is a sufficient connection between (the) counts ... given the underlying similarity of the conduct, notwithstanding the differences as to place and time and some of the circumstances,” Justice Hall said.

Also contained in the more than 70 pages of judgment were more facts behind the State’s case that Mr Edwards was the man who abducted and murdered Sarah Spiers, Ciara Glennon and Jane Rimmer.

Camera IconDefence barrister Paul Yovich.Picture: Steve Ferrier

They included the revelation the now 50-year-old was placed on a sex offender treatment program for nearly a year after his conviction in 1990 for an attack on a lone, vulnerable woman at Hollywood hospital.

Mr Edwards was convicted of a charge of common assault after he admitted approaching the 40-year-old social worker from behind, placing a piece of material over her nose and mouth and dragging her backward towards a toilet.

After a struggle, the woman broke free and a hospital security guard detained Mr Edwards.

Three weeks later, he was sentenced to two years probation.

In his ruling, Justice Hall said the so-called “Huntingdale Prowler” evidence — which details a series of bizarre sightings of a man breaking into houses and stealing women’s clothing close to where Mr Edwards lived in Huntingdale in 1988 — would be admissible in the hearing of the allegations he subsequently attacked a young girl in a house in the same area.

The former Telstra technician is alleged to have broken into the house he was familiar with, closed the doors to all the bedrooms, unplugged the landline telephone and then launched himself at an 18-year-old girl, attacking her as she lay face down, asleep in her bed.

However, that prowler evidence will not be taken into account when considering the three murder charges.

Prosecutors claimed it should have been because it could show Mr Edwards’ tendency to “prowl an area of familiarly at night-time in a distinctive manner in order to create and/or seize opportunities to commit an offence with a sexual motive”. The last of those Huntingdale break-ins was yesterday revealed to be especially disturbing.

In October 1988, months after Mr Edwards’ alleged attack on the sleeping girl, prosecutors say he sneaked into a house in Harpenden Street and hid in a toilet for 15 minutes while the female occupant showered.

As she walked passed the toilet, Edwards is said to have leapt at her, pushed her against the wall and slapped her repeatedly around the head. But the victim still saw enough of the man to notice him wearing a satin nightie and layers of ladies’ clothing.

He was also barefoot and wearing underpants over his head, with his eyes exposed.

The woman fought back, punching the intruder and kneeing him in the groin.

And when he saw the woman’s young daughter standing nearby, the intruder fled.

Camera IconLead prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo.Picture: Steve Ferrier

Justice Hall also ruled evidence labelled the “Telstra Living Witness Project” — which details several occasions where a man driving a Telstra vehicle stopped to pick up lone women in the Claremont area in 1995 and 1996 — can be used in the murder charges, but not in the Huntingdale charge.

And the evidence surrounding Mr Edwards’ final charge — that he raped a woman at Karrakatta cemetery after grabbing her off the street in Claremont in February 1995 — is admissible to all the charges, Justice Hall ruled. His description of the State’s case starkly laid out why.

“Each victim had been participating in the nightlife activities in the Claremont precinct on the night that they were attacked or disappeared ... was taken suddenly ... were attacked within a 25-month period, were attacked in the early hours of the morning on a Saturday or Sunday.

“All four victims were aged between 18 and 27-years-old, were of small build and fair complexion ... were vulnerable in that they were intoxicated and were alone ... and there is evidence that each of the victims of the Claremont murders were driven from the area where they were abducted.”

Mr Edwards has denied all the charges against him. He only spoke yesterday to confirm he could hear the court via a video link from Casuarina prison. He was moved there after an apparent self-harm incident — where authorities believe he stabbed himself in the ear with a pencil — on the scheduled first morning of the hearing last month.